Bayou

It was September 11, 2002, a night Melinda and Richard had looked forward to since freshman year. Richard was turning 16 years old today, had passed his driver’s test and was driving his sweet Melinda to homecoming - music blaring, windows down and all dressed up. That was until an enormous, orange pickup truck told them other wise. Melinda was buckled in the passenger seat. All Melinda remembers is seeing a blur of orange run through the stop sign and come full speed ahead at the driver’s…

I think reconstruction can be categorized in each range of human behavior.The behaviors of anonymity, shame and humiliation, bystander, and dehumanization play a major part in the reconstruction of the country after the civil war. Although it was a both a failure and success in their own ways, it was just the beginning of Civil Rights movements, whether you were in the North or South. Reconstruction failed because there was so much corruption and violence which would lead to hate groups like…

night we tuned into the news coverage to see if Ivan had made landfall, but the day it did was seemingly the worst day in history. I remember sitting in front of the television in my grandmother’s kitchen and seeing the image of all of the boats in Bayou Grande stacked on top of each other. Another defining image would be the picture of the semi-truck on the Interstate Ten Bridge when the bridge…

In this regard, the short story, The Watch is the best example. The title of the story provides the best story of America. In the summary of the story goes as 77 years of man named Buzbee and his 63 years old son Hollingsworth lived together in the bayou country in the remote grocery store. The grocery store didn’t have any customers and it was full of rusty and ancient tins. The men supported themselves by selling the land to the timber cutter. One day, Buzbee runs off in the wild and start…

narrator says, “ She walked across a deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds. She disappeared among the reeds and windows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again.” (Chopin 4). In the story, the author states the symbolism in “Desiree’s Baby”, “Although this is not the stone pillar before, Chopin associates Desiree with the imagery of stone to symbolize a transition in…

Being a victim of prejudice can make people feel unequal to others like in the story “Everyday Use.” Mama imagines herself on a show like Johnny Carson, and asks herself “Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye?” (Walker 149). Feeling like she is unequal to white people, Mama cannot imagine herself doing this because she feels that they are better than her since she presumably has had unpleasant experiences in her past. When this story was written, racism was common, so it…

farmer and violinist with his family by his side. One day in 1841 Northup was lured south and kidnapped, he was enslaved for over a decade and endured horribly violent conditions. He was eventually sold to another slave owner in 1843 to Edwin Epps in Bayou Beouf. Months had passed when an anti-slavery Canadian carpenter named, Samuel Bass visited the Beouf plantation. He befriended Northup, reached out to musicians back in Saratoga Springs and found verification that he had been a free member of…

A slave owner who was attributed for taming the American plains, a land full of violent Indian tribes and hostile Mexican armies fought for the rights of his slaves, the Indians who plagued his land, and the people he led. This is the perplexing story of Sam Houston, one of America's most influential men and unlikely civil rights leader. Sam Houston, the first president of Texas and two-time congressman, believed in equal rights for all. He was an advocate for many types of “civil rights…

Forrest despite his disability, is able to achieve personal best and other achievements such as being in the “Ping-Pong” team, help him to make it to the White House, the highest honor to be awarded. In the movie, Forrest Gump met the President of USA twice, once for being a hero in the army, and once for being part of the “ping pong” team against China. This chance of meeting the President, symbolizes that even a mentally handicapped person can have a chance make it to the top and be recognized…

“There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.” (Muhammad Ali Jinnah). For years, one of the most effective ways for women to feel empowered was through literature based around strong female protagonists. Themes of empowerment are found throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat,” Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s…